Between Earth and Sky | Penda Architects

Architectural and design studio Penda (Vienna and Beijing), elaborated a proposal for the new gateway of Shenzen Southern University of Science and Technology. The proposal is entitled “Between Earth and Sky” a metaphor for all those that enter the campus through the landmark.

“Between Earth and Sky” tells of a waypoint, a change from the earthly world to something beyond. A passage from the earthly knowledge to more ethereal discoveries more advanced  experiments on modern science. The design for the entrance of the campus is like a solid built yin-yan.

Two opposites united, the land element building a fluid soft hills that supports an entire grid structure of light, just like a metaphor of the ethereal sky, for the unknown, the undiscovered.

For the architects of the studio Penda, the landmark symbolizes the free thinking on one hand and some guide lines on the other, like system and order in science, a contrast between endless possibilities and technical limitations.

The same sculpture is a metaphor for a Technical University, should stand for a simbioseentre nature and technology.
The formal design of wings that make the entry is inspired by a Chinese adage that parents tell their children when they go to college, “fly on the wings of an eagle to your success.”